Category Archives: History

More Boxing Day looks at the sport of Boxing in LR. This time at Robinson Auditorium.

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Boxer Al Globe lays in the ring after being knocked down by Bob Sikes in this GAZETTE staff photo

Boxer Al Globe lays in the ring after being knocked down by Bob Sikes in this GAZETTE staff photo

Though the origins of the name Boxing Day have nothing to do with pugilism, today’s entry looks at early boxing matches at Robinson Auditorium.

Though the building did not open until February 1940, there were a few preview events in the lower level exhibition hall beginning in October 1939.  (The construction upstairs would not be completed until January 1940.)

Wrestling was a more common sport on the lower level. But from time to time there was boxing.  It appears that the first boxing matches took place on November 9, 1939.

Pine Bluff’s heavyweight Bob Sikes was the star attraction on the main card as he faced off against Chicago’s Al Globe.  The two were fairly evenly matched through the first three rounds. In the fourth round, Globe sent Sikes to the mat, before the latter arose on the seventh count. (He was a bit groggy and could not name the city in which he was boxing.)  Ninety seconds into the fifth round, however, Sikes delivered a knockout punch to Globe.

The warm-up bout featured Carolinian Maxie Doyle against Jimmy Merritt of Oklahoma. After the ref called the match on a TKO in favor of Doyle, the two continued to fight in the ring. It took their seconds to leave the corner and help the ref break it up.  The boxers were threatened with suspension if they continued it any further.

Prior to the Doyle-Merritt bout, Bauxite’s Woody Bell edged out Young Leonard in six rounds. Charley Regan and Bobbie Lee came to a draw after their six.  The first match of the evening featured two African American boxers: Little Rock’s Bill Walker, who earned a decision over North Little Rock’s Herbert Taylor.

Since the heating system was not yet operational at Robinson Auditorium, promoters for the early wrestling and boxing matches touted the fact that a temporary heating system was in place as temperatures started to drop.

Sikes was back at Robinson in another marquee match on February 9, 1940, one week before the official opening of the upstairs Music Hall.  By this time permanent heating and lighting had been connected.

Boxer Bob Sikes, GAZETTE staffer Lou MacDuff and boxer Joe Regan in a GAZETTE staff photo

Boxer Bob Sikes, GAZETTE staffer Lou MacDuff and boxer Joe Regan in a GAZETTE staff photo

The headline bout was Sikes against Joe Regan of Ames, Iowa.  They were scheduled for ten rounds.

Earlier fights on the card were the six-round middleweight match of Gould Nix of Willow meeting Buck Buchanan of Rogers; welterweight Doyle Venable of Dierks vs. Little Rock’s Freddie Richardson; Johnny Allen of Saint Louis meeting Woody Bell of Bauxite; and, in the first match, Kid Tobey of Hot Springs vs. Bill Walker of Little Rock. The latter was a four round bout featuring two African American boxers.

The marquee fight did not go anywhere near as long as ten rounds.  Fifty-four seconds into the second round, Sikes pummeled Regan with a right to the chin, a right to the cheek and a left hook to the head. After that Regan was down for the count. Though at the eight count he did manage to turn over from his back to his stomach and remained in that position until being helped to his corner following the bell.

Earlier in the evening, Nix, Venable, and Bell all won their bouts by decisions of the judges. Walker won the curtain raiser by a knock out in the second round.

It was a capacity crowd for the boxing event at Robinson Auditorium.  Tickets, which were available for purchase at Rube & Scott, Inc. men’s clothing store, ranged from 55 cents for general admission, to $1.10 for reserved seating and ringside seats of $1.65 or @2.20.

Christmas Child – future Broadway star Fay Templeton born on Dec. 25, 1865

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Though largely forgotten today, Little Rock native Fay Templeton was one of the leading stars of vaudeville and Broadway in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

She was born in Little Rock on Christmas Day in 1865.  Her parents were touring here with the Templeton Opera Company. Her father, John Templeton, was a well-known Southern theatre manager, comedian, and author. Her mother, Helen Alice Vane, starred with her husband.  The family of three left Little Rock a few weeks after Fay was born, once her mother was able to travel.

She made her stage debut at age three, and her New York vaudeville debut at eight. At fifteen, she married a co-star but separated after six weeks.  She made her legitimate New York stage debut at nineteen in a revival of Evangeline.

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, she spent most of her time in Europe, appearing on stage and touring shows.  By 1895, she was back on stage in New York.  She then starred in a series of shows first for the vaudeville team of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, later for George M. Cohan. She introduced the songs “So Long Mary” and “Mary Is a Grand Old Name” in the latter’s Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway.  Her work with Cohan is portrayed in the Oscar winning film Yankee Doodle Dandy and in the Tony winning musical George M!

She retired from the stage after marrying Pittsburgh businessman William Patterson. But by 1911, Fay was once again touring with Weber and Fields.  She retired again in 1913, this time staying off stage until 1926. She then played the role of Buttercup in a revival of HMS Pinafore and would be known as the definitive Buttercup for the rest of the 1920s and into the 1930s.  When her husband died in 1932, she returned to the stage.  In 1933, she starred with Bob Hope in the Jerome Kern musical Roberta.

In 1936, she entered the Actors’ Fund Home in New Jersey, but later moved to San Francisco to live with a cousin.  She died there on October 3, 1939, and is buried in Valhalla, New York.

Templeton returned to Little Rock several times throughout her life as she was criss-crossing the US on tours.